The Other Life
by Om0cha
Summary: Reality and dreams make up the most part of people's lives. Then there's the Halls. Life for Naruto would have been different in all three of them, if it weren't for that one Sasuke bastard that he just can't seem to escape. SasuNaru.


When hijacked by rabid plot bunnies, breed them.

When given lemons, juice them.

What do you get? Sour bunnies!...Not really. You get this story.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto? Me? Nope. Naruto? Sasuke? That's right. And the lecher in the bushes over there is Kishimoto.

**The Other Life**

_By Om0cha_

* * *

><p>Of particular interest to Naruto was the creature standing less than a foot away from him.<p>

A great, albino mare with its serpentine head directly in his face, the large animal was blocking a good half of his vision as he returned its stare. A thoughtless part of his mind hazily dismissed the fact that a pair of powerful, feathery wings were attached to the creature's back and just visibly flexing in the background. It made sense, vaguely.

All the better to fly through all these clouds with.

He blinked. His mouth dropped open slightly and he stepped past the winged horse to see better. On the spot, he spun his gaze in a sweeping arc, eyes running from what he would assume was a horizon glowing on his left before peering up into an endless, spiralling distance spattered with stars on the right.

It was definitely a cloudy night, with deep gray and purple-blue tinged white forming thick tracks in all directions. He couldn't even pinpoint the ground, except for the occasional flash of iridescent, cornflower blue here and there amongst the coils of darkness. A deep, echoing rumble suddenly sounded beneath him.

The mare neighed impatiently then and nudged him in the shoulder with her dark nose, making him stumble forward before hastily returning his attention to her.

"I'm going, I'm going," he exclaimed in exasperation. And because it made sense –vaguely- he pulled himself up onto her saddle-less back.

The mare nodded its head once and set off at a rocking trot that quickly became bounding gallops, her wings beating uncomfortably against the inside of Naruto's thighs. Then with a great leap and a few split seconds of achingly perceptible free-fall through the suspended clouds, they were airborne. His hands clenched tightly in the silken strands of silver that lined the mare's spine and he pressed himself flat against her as the air that had been blown from him with the drop returned.

With the crisp, fresh air gradually re-entering his lungs and brain came the clarity of mind that always permeated dreamers the closer they got to the Halls. Sure enough, he soon saw the great, white granite pillars materialising before his eyes, the entire, colossal structure suddenly looming out from the dark clouds in all its glowing, majestic glory. He wondered what would happen if he tried to jump off now and like an in-built radar sensing his mischief, the mare snorted warningly and turned its head to regard him again.

"You'd think they would know to give me a more patient horse," Naruto jibed back, but sat still and allowed her to continue taking him onwards.

In human terms, the Halls would have probably been categorised somewhere within the scope of Vitruvian architecture. The forefront of the structure housing the Halls was almost indistinguishable from the Maison Carree except for a holy glow, and it was a controversial and unresolved debate that questioned whether the human who created the structure in Nimes had somehow remembered the Halls when awake.

They touched down softly at the foot of the steps where a dozen or so other winged horses were grazing. A boy and a girl that had already alighted from their respective steeds were at the top of the steps between two enormous pillars, speaking with a figure that was ceaselessly changing form. At that moment the Master was a small, round boy with red stained cheeks and cat-like eyes that didn't quite match the rest of his body.

Naruto slid from his winged horse and leaving her to her chewing, he climbed up the steps towards the Master, whom upon sighting him immediately changed into that form of a tall, large man with long, spiky white hair. Red lines trailed down like tear tracks from the edges of his eyes and Naruto would never understand why his Master took on the form of such a strange looking man.

"A cloudy night," were Jiraiya's first words to his approaching charge, and his voice held an odd, playful bounce that hinted at Naruto's personality. A perpetual grin split his face, sometimes perfectly normal, sometimes dubiously suspicious. "You're lucky she found you," his Master reprimanded with a waggling finger at Naruto's sour look. "Many dreamers have gotten lost. There's going to be a great deal of nightmares going around tonight."

"It hasn't gotten that bad," Naruto protested, even as he turned with Jiraiya to face the impressive clouds he'd come through beyond the stone walkway and arch. A jagged ray of crackling, yellow lightening chose to streak through the purple at that moment and Naruto glared nastily at it. Jiraiya crowed with laughter.

"Come on brat, you're over an hour late."

"Not a brat," Naruto grumbled half-heartedly.

Jiraiya turned and Naruto followed him in through the pillars and multiple doors as another Jiraiya appeared and remained outside.

"Any meds?" the original Jiraiya asked, a notebook taking shape in his hand out of thin air as they walked. He licked the nib of a quill in his other hand, moistening the ink to mark the parchment before Naruto had even answered.

"No."

"Aromatherapy, herbs, hypnosis, etcetera?"

"No."

"Physically induced coma?"

"No."

"Mentally induced coma?"

"Neither."

"Daydreams."

Naruto's eyes veered to the left and away from the Master.

"Not really."

Jiraiya leered at his paper. "That would be a yes," he said gleefully, and Naruto found a vein near his temple twitching when Jiraiya continued the interrogation with a knowing grin across his face.

They stopped at a set of wide doors that reached from roof to floor and Jiraiya processed his notes there, carelessly tossing them one by one into the air. Naruto watched them flutter and fade away before they even had the chance to start falling. When he was done with that the Master looked down, resting his large hands on his hips and raising an eyebrow at Naruto.

"Well what are you waiting for brat? Get in there. I've got other work to do, pretty ladies to see, dreams to enjoy. I'm a busy man."

Naruto's stomach plummeted a bit with disappointment and he pushed past the Master into the Halls, hearing the telltale whoosh of the man departing behind him. The thin, red schemed carpet beneath his feet that had lined the corridors gave way to a huge, continuing rug of the same pattern that reached to the base of all the granite walls. A skylight high above showed the brewing clouds and offered dim light to the many dreamers wandering the Halls, making their ways into their dreams for the night.

On any normal night the sky outside would be of the most bright, blinding light that one could imagine. Clouds would move slowly across the glass and between them, rays of sunlight struggling to escape would intermittently cascade into the Halls victoriously, illuminating the white walls with brilliance. With the gloomy view tonight, the Halls were appearing much less ethereal and distracting. Dreamers were not stopping in rapt awe like they sometimes did and Naruto was able to manoeuvre onwards with much more ease. He passed by the set of huge, pearly double-gates through which masses of people were entering the largest group dreams and felt a prickling at the base of his neck that had nothing to do with the soft, alluring gust coming through the gates.

This process was all routine and easy enough, but something else that was also routine was uncomfortably absent. It crossed his mind to turn around, just to be sure. But then again, sneaking around wasn't really _his_ style.

It didn't matter anymore when his walk to the other end of the Halls was untimely stopped in its tracks. A heavy, silent weight hit him in the back and he indentified a firm hand pressing between his tensed shoulder blades before he was forced down and face first with a yelp into the plush carpet, mouth acquainting with soft threads. The hand shifted and took a firm grip in his blonde hair as his assailant used his legs to press his lower body down, almost doubling him over.

That damn, sneaky –

"Ow ow ow – I _said_ OW DAMN IT! Fucking bastard!"

A deceptively calm and cool voice sounded somewhere just behind his ear. Naruto bristled with outrage and spitting out red threads, struggled to get up and inflict bodily harm. Unfortunately, one of his arms was still being held and the other was making sure his front didn't completely meet with the ground. His annoyance was actually being fuelled primarily by the fact that he wasn't able to retaliate. And all because he'd been thinking a tad too highly of the other.

Right.

"You complete _idiot_. Do you know how long I waited?"

Naruto scowled. It was always about him.

"Well you could have gone on first without me!" he snarked. "It's not my fault the freaking sky decided to be like a certain pms-ing, conniving, bastardly, arrogant duck-butt –"

"You know perfectly well that I cannot _go on without you_," the other growled, and pressed his palm harder against the side of Naruto's head, stopping his arsenal of descriptive language that had been built up over a great many years.

Naruto's cheek and chest was ground into the floor and he gave a single groan of pain before drawing his now unsupportive arm and consequently elbow back. And bang. Right where it hurt. Grievous bodily harm, accomplished! The other hissed and let go, giving Naruto the chance to buck back and push him off before stumbling to his feet, turning around to face the quite literal bane of his dreams.

"Sasuke," he ground out scathingly.

It was all in a good night's routine. Many of the dreamers around them could not be bothered to watch after the umpteenth time and merely passed by them and on their way. The chance few that hadn't witnessed the legendary brawls of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha in the Halls stopped momentarily with wide eyes before they were sent scuttling again, the threat of becoming collateral damage a very real possibility.

Naruto touched his grazed cheek tentatively with one finger and winced at the carpet burn he felt. Sasuke was already recovering by the way he straightened and Naruto regretted not taking better aim.

Scowling, Naruto looked up –dammit – at the taller male's face. The bastard looked pissed. If the fact that it was _Sasuke_ to attack Naruto first and not the other way around wasn't any indication, then the steely, narrowed dark eyes and positively alarming aura rolling from his now stiff frame were the emergency beacons flashing.

"I waited," Sasuke uttered lowly, "in the middle of the Halls, while hundreds of people – _girls_— went past. Do you know how much I hate you?"

"I take no responsibility for your frigid ass," Naruto retorted with a snort. So that was what had happened. Sasuke had been ambushed by fangirls, again. Only he would have to fight off girls in his sleep.

"The least you can do to repay me for putting up with you is to show up on time," Sasuke snarled. He grabbed Naruto's upper arm and wheeled him around, leading them non-too gently towards their delayed dream.

"Hey, let _go_ asswipe!"

It really sucked, Naruto thought, as Sasuke pulled him through a heavy, wooden door that swung open for them before shutting with a sentencing click. Why the hell did he have to be stuck with Sasuke?

* * *

><p>"So I told Kiba that if he <em>ever<em> wants us to babysit again, he's gonna have to pay us in gold bars."

Naruto nodded to himself in satisfaction as he finished recounting the disaster that had been mini-Kiba. Sasuke rolled his eyes and glanced at the blonde that was boiling water at the stove. He frowned over the newspaper he was reading at the kitchen table when he caught a glimpse of one red, scarred cheek.

"What happened to your cheek?"

"Mmh?"

Naruto finished pouring them both cups of coffee at the counter before sitting down across from him, pushing Sasuke's to him and dropping in just shy of half a teaspoon of sugar from the pot in the middle of the table, exactly the amount that he knew the bastard liked.

"What do you mean?"

Naruto smoothed down his rumpled shirt and picked up his own cup, putting several more teaspoons of sugar in and sipping it absently as he met Sasuke's gaze inquisitively with his own. Sasuke's frown softened slightly.

God. Those blue eyes.

The first time he met their owner, the both of them had been at an engagement party thrown by mutual friends. Shades of blue had been sparkling merrily with mischief as the blonde standing across from him on the other side of the refreshments table quickly spiked the fruit punch with alcohol. After slipping the bottle under the table Naruto had then looked directly at him, tilted his head to the side and lifted his forefinger to his coral lips, successfully entrancing Sasuke into secrecy and a spiralling love.

Sasuke folded the newspaper up and put it down. Leaning across the table towards Naruto, who stilled with his elbow on the tablecloth and coffee before his lips, Sasuke pressed his palm gently to the blonde's right cheek where the skin was a light shade of red. Naruto moved against it briefly before wincing. He reached his free hand up and Sasuke pulled his away so that Naruto could feel the tender skin.

"Hmm. When did that happen?" Naruto wondered out loud. He rubbed the pad of a finger circularly on it a few more times experimentally, then shrugged it off and smiled at Sasuke. "I must have done it somehow while sleeping. It'll be fine."

The chair legs screeched across the tiles as Sasuke got up to walk around and behind Naruto. He wrapped his arms around across his chest and pressed his face against the back of his neck, breath hot and moving until he was at the sensitive skin at the side of his throat. Naruto shivered through the treatment, placing one hand on Sasuke's arm and quickly setting down his coffee cup lest he drop it.

"Or maybe," Sasuke whispered slyly and a tad bit apologetically, "I was too rough on you last night?"

Naruto knew where this was going as Sasuke returned his lips to his neck. It was Sasuke for heaven's sake, he spent half his time with Naruto plotting how to get him turned on enough to jump. 'Apology sex' was probably his latest plan, Naruto thought shrewdly. Why was he living with this guy again?

Oh, yes. He'd just partially answered that, and a very good reason it was.

"We've got work Sasuke," he said loudly, failing in his point spectacularly as his voice came out in a needy tenor and he unconsciously moved forward to give his lover easier access. Maybe he was just as bad as the raven. "We've got two meetings today, both of them are important propositions regarding the merger with Sabaku Corp and – listen to me!"

Sasuke ignored his objection, fully confident in his ability to convince him that the only work set out for him was fucking a loud, beautiful blonde into oblivion. Naruto chose that moment to reach over and slap the thick wad of proposal from his open suitcase and into Sasuke's face.

"_Work_, Sasuke, the thing that lets us live in this apartment." Sasuke pulled the stapled booklet from his face and inspected it mulishly.

"I read it already."

"Liar! I printed it off last night!"

"I read it last night."

"You and I both know perfectly well what you were _doing_ last night."

Sasuke nuzzled uncharacteristically in his hair with his nose, hand sneakily slipping the proposal onto the table where it would be safe from…staining. "The right thing?"

"No!"

Naruto tried again, pressing half-heartedly against Sasuke's chest when the raven turned him around, chair and all. Sasuke cupped his face with both palms, making sure Naruto didn't move his gaze away like he tended to do when embarrassed. Sasuke definitely liked embarrassing his blonde.

"The only annoying, unavoidable work that I love is you. I think my choice is clear."

"You just always _have_ to insult me and say sappy shit like tha –"

Sasuke pulled Naruto's face forward and covered his lips with his own, tongue instantly forcing its way in. He licked a slow path around Naruto's cavern before twirling their tongues together in an open mouthed kiss. Sasuke's hands were everywhere, _their_ hands were everywhere, and Naruto forgot how to worry. His fingers shifted to clench roughly on Sasuke's cuffs.

"Daaaammit Sasuke."

He growled for a moment into the mouth of his annoyingly persistent lover before he stood up and ripped their lips apart, a trail of saliva breaking between their tongues and a fathomless look in his eyes. Naruto was no weakling once he got started, and Sasuke smirked approvingly.

"Fuck it."

With a sharp movement the blonde grabbed Sasuke's tie and loosening it, pulled it over his head, flinging it somewhere to the side –hopefully not the rubbish, it had been building up for awhile now – and quickly made deft work of the buttons running down Sasuke's white shirt. A toned upper body was revealed to him as the shirt was removed from Sasuke's frame. He ran his hands across the skin and muscles for some moments before leaning forward, swiping a wet tongue across a dark nipple before continuing his conquest.

Sasuke had no such patience with undressing his beloved and as soon as Naruto attempted to move to the other nipple, he pounced and practically tore Naruto's clothes from his body. Buttons popped across the checkered tiles, to which the blonde complained unconvincingly.

"Now I need to buy another shirt bastard!"

"Yes."

"On top of all the other ones!"

"Yes."

His black pants and boxers were shed in one, practised swipe and Naruto's muscles flexed lithely in the sunlight from the window behind the sink as he stepped out of them and moved closer to his dark haired lover.

Somehow Naruto just about always ended up naked before him –let it be known that Naruto is not _always_ the impatient one— and the blonde expressed his displeasure with a scowl as he quickly corrected Sasuke's crime.

His forefinger teasingly brushed against Sasuke's bulging manhood before drawing his pants down for him. The Uchiha had gone commando and his large, veined member sprang out from its confines proudly. Sasuke kicked his pants from his ankles and then squeezed one firm ass cheek in his hand appreciatively as Naruto pressed their bodies closer, bringing their erect cocks rubbing together and creating a glorious friction that had them both groaning in want.

"Well?" Naruto demanded, and Sasuke could feel the heat of his breath, the love in his touch. Naruto nibbled at his lover's jaw, keeping up a constant grind of his hips. "This is your job isn't it?" he said breathily between nibbles, snaking his arms with difficulty behind Sasuke's neck. "_I'm_ your job. So hurry up, and fucking _do your job_."

Sasuke leaned over him, muscular upper body on full display as he pulled both of Naruto's legs up by the thighs and drew them around his hips. Naruto kept his arms firmly where they were to stop himself from falling backwards. Sasuke's fingers were already teasing between his cheeks, dipping in and probing the clenching and unclenching hole.

"As you wish."

The reply and promise hung there for only a moment. Then Sasuke began walking them towards the living room, their mouths fervently locked and moving against each other. Naruto didn't expect it when one of Sasuke's arms disappeared from beneath his thigh without warning, removing the extra support and letting his weight drop several inches and impale him on Sasuke's exploring fingers. He cried out into Sasuke's mouth at the three digits that were suddenly forced deep inside of him and Sasuke smirked as he continued walking, the movements bouncing Naruto up and down and stretching him.

"Ah, _ah,_ _fuck_! Sasuke, hurry up!"

Breaking their liplock, Naruto pulled himself further up onto the other's shoulders and away from the prying fingers and pleasure with a whimper, not wanting to come just yet. Sasuke chuckled and Naruto wet his lips when he felt himself being lowered, watched as Sasuke leaned over him again, disengaging the blonde's arms from himself and laying him extravagantly across the low coffee table in their living room.

Sasuke pressed his suddenly dry lips together, strands of black hair dropping sexily into his eyes as he surveyed his blonde. Both of their bodies were sweaty and on Naruto it was sensual, giving his tan skin a glazed appearance that went with his matted, messy hair and the mauled look he sported. Naruto's long legs hung over the edge of the table and Sasuke was sure the small of the blonde's back would be aching once Sasuke had finished pounding him against it. Naruto raised his arms, beckoning at him and Sasuke listened to desire.

He placed a hand beneath Naruto's head, guiding their lips together into a deeper kiss than before.

"_Fuck_, _Sasuke, now_," Naruto groaned into their shared space. "I'm gonna come before I even feel you. I want to come with your cock inside me, stretching me wide, so wide only for you." He knew Sasuke got turned on when he begged, and the Uchiha was all the rougher because of it. Which in turn turned Naruto on. They were perfect.

Sasuke still didn't make any move to plunge into Naruto and so the prostrate blonde continued in his ministrations, his hand clenching in Sasuke's silky raven hair and holding him to him while the other male worked on developing a brilliantly dark hickey at his collarbone. Sasuke's hand creeped between them to tug way too slowly at Naruto's length and Naruto pushed his hips upwards, spreading his legs wide so that Sasuke's engorged cock slipped slickly between his cheeks with the movement.

"Naruto," Sasuke growled in warning, stilling from somewhere beneath his chin. Sasuke was trying to get the foreplay done before he snapped. With his girth it wasn't difficult to hurt the blonde if he wasn't properly stimulated and prepared, but Naruto played blindness to his lover's care and continued on.

"Please Sasuke," he begged huskily. His eyes were glazed over with carnal lust, his breaths were hitched. "Take me now." He pressed his groin forward pointedly. "I feel too tight without you here." He drew his fingers down to begin fingering himself, each of them rubbing one after the other around his hole. He slipped one in.

And like he expected, that was all it took for Sasuke to snap. Sasuke was the most possessive bastard he had ever met. Naruto belonged to _Sasuke_. That meant that not even _Naruto_ could touch himself that way.

His hand was torn from between his legs and Sasuke replaced it almost instantly. Naruto threw his head back hard against the table with a loud cry and his legs tensed on either side of his pale lover, his blonde locks dragging across the varnished wood and lower back smacking against the table edge as Sasuke slammed himself fully into his body. He bit on his bottom lip harshly. The mix of deep pleasure and stinging pain inside was intoxicating and had him digging his nails into Sasuke's shoulders, fearing it would all end before they'd even gotten started.

"Aa— ha— _move_."

He clenched down on the organ inside him, watching with pure adoration as Sasuke grimaced and failed to hide a deep, reverberating moan.

"Sasukeeee."

He keened and pulled Sasuke's face roughly down to his, closing his eyes and laying some gentler kisses everywhere.

"Make love to me, Sasuke."

And Sasuke, much as he loved his blonde, obeyed.

* * *

><p>When the door clicked shut behind them, Naruto instantly scooted a good several metres away from Sasuke. Both of them sported flaming red blushes across their faces and a few people around them snickered knowingly at the two young men, frozen in front of a door for two.<p>

"How …"

Naruto seemed to be in a state of mortified shock. Nevermind that Sasuke had seen him in…that _state_ before now. No number of wet dreams got rid of the humiliation when your partner –not romantic partner, mind you— shared every detail of your most risqué moments.

He tried again with more success, and rounded on Sasuke with a righteously pointing finger as he all but shrieked at him.

"How did you turn _carpet burn_ into _that?_"

"I didn't decide the dream you idiot!"

"You gave it to me!"

In more ways than one, but he was busy trying to erase those particular bits. Sasuke seemed to share this wish and the two of them speedily turned away from each other after Naruto's slip, blushes spreading to their necks.

"Could you _shut up_ and let me wipe my brain."

Naruto ignored him. "That was bad," he moaned, and he clutched his hair as if suffering severe mental pain. "Oh my god, that was one of the worst yet."

It had been so vivid, and a great degree more detailed than normal. He could swear he had felt everything like it wasn't a dream, but happening in the Halls or even worse, in reality. Everything from the kisses to the (censored) to the (censored) to the damn carpet burn that started it all. His eyes snapped wide open.

"PERVERTED HEEEEEEERRRRRMIT!"

There was a soft sizzle and with a scowl tacked on, Jiraiya appeared next to him. A notebook was open in his hand, which Naruto had reason to believe did not contain the answers to anyone's questions. There were just way too many bookmarks and sticky notes hanging out of it. _Pink _bookmarks. Sasuke went to the side and looked away, waiting for his own Master to appear. It was an unspoken discourtesy to stare at another's Master.

"I don't want to be Sasuke's partner," Naruto said instantly before the man's mouth could open to scold him. The hermit sighed. This again.

"Listen to reason, Naruto," he said calmly, pocketing his notebook in his red vest and watching forebodingly as his charge's eyes narrowed. "It's not like Sasuke is the only person ever with you. Your next task for the night is a group dream."

"But it always ends up being about just him anyway! The self-centred jerk! What kind of reasoning is that?"

"You have _always_ been partners. It is not right to separate you just because you hate each other's guts in one world out of three."

"I don't even know Sasuke in the real world!" Naruto retorted irritably. "Why us?" His face suddenly hardened. "And speaking of real worlds and dream worlds," he said dangerously, "why did something that happened in the Halls show up in our dream?"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

"This," Naruto turned his face and pointed at his cheek, "was in our dream."

Oh, it did more than show up, but Naruto was going to take the slim chance that the Master hadn't been watching their particular dream chamber at the time. Slim, because wherever there was sex, Jiraiya was sure to be nearby. Beyond the embarrassment though, the matter was disconcerting.

Sometimes people remembered their dreams when they woke up in reality. Most of the time people remembered some part of reality and it played a major part in dreams. But never, and this was known by all, reality and dreams both _never_ remembered the Halls.

"Interesting," Jiraiya said, tapping his chin. "Perhaps it was coincidence?" His eyes flickered over to Sasuke, and Naruto glanced over to see that Sasuke's Master –another pervert that went by the alias Kakashi— had arrived and was in low key discussions with the raven.

"No," Naruto said stubbornly and he turned back to Jiraiya. He was willing to gamble and gamble big that it was _not_ coincidence. Heck, the dream Sasuke had even taken direct responsibility for it.

Okay, trying to forget that.

"I cannot say then," Jiraiya said, and a pleased smile cracked across his face, his hands raised in a universal and mocking, 'I don't know' gesture.

"Then I demand to be removed from Sasuke's dreams," Naruto said coolly with crossed arms, unamused and undeterred. "Obviously there's something wrong with us being together if things happen that even the almighty _Master_ can't explain."

"Naruto, that isn't a good idea."

"Why ever the hell not?"

Naruto threw his hands up in the air. He'd run straight into one of the other dreams himself if it weren't for the fact that the chamber would throw him out. He had attempted it before, when Sasuke's face had became too much to bear after one extremely long night of five consecutive dreams. The damn room had spewed him back out. It was humiliating.

Just as he was about to begin showing the Halls that the Master was indeed physical and pummel-able, he heard to his astonishment a distantly familiar voice that should not be.

"Perhaps we should let him try it."

Naruto spun around. Sasuke stood stonily some feet behind Kakashi who was evidently the one that had spoken. The silver haired Master crinkled his eyes and raised a thickly gloved hand at Naruto, the rest of his face hidden beneath a plain, white cloth mask that was tied behind his ears.

"Yo."

Naruto didn't reply and actually unconsciously stepped closer to Jiraiya. Talking to another's Master was forbidden, and Sasuke's Master just happened to look weirder than his own.

"Kakashi," Jiraiya addressed the other, "as I was saying to him, I don't think that that is such a good idea."

"No harm can come to him in the Halls," Kakashi said airily as he waved his hand up and down in a fan motion. "I could accompany you and watch his dream if you're that worried."

"Yeah," Naruto piqued up loudly and suddenly, seizing the winds that were starting to blow his way. He made sure his eye contact was with his own Master.

"We're all just dreaming," he assured Jiraiya. "I'll be fine. I don't know what you're even expecting to happen, old man."

"I am your Master for a reason," Jiraiya said irritably. "Give me respect."

"How about we let him try tomorrow night?" Kakashi suggested over their banter. He had a tone of voice that implied he was already being very rational and lenient and that anyone who opposed him was a stubborn jerk.

Hehe. Explained Sasuke.

Naruto whined. "Jiraaaiiiiyaaaaaaaaa."

Jiraiya rubbed his furrowed brow and Kakashi waited calmly.

A grin flitted across Naruto's face.

"Fine."

* * *

><p>"You're leaving?"<p>

Naruto turned to look at his friend. Quite difficult when there was a huge tree trunk separating them and they were both sitting on branches high above the ground. Leaves of all brilliant greens and yellows decorated the air around them, dappled by golden sunlight. But he thought that he could hear traces of sorrow in the other toddler's voice, and he bit on his bottom lip apprehensively.

"I think so. Iruka said we're moving," he called across loudly. The birds in a nest above quailed belligerently. The sounds of the many people at the festival on the other side of the hill rang clear. They had been down there, too, at first. But Sasuke never really did like being in large crowds and Naruto found the smoky air to be much less appealing than the freshness of the hills.

"Sasuke can move with us!"

Sasuke didn't say anything and frowning, Naruto got up and wrapped his arms around the tree as far as they would go. Clinging on tightly, he edged himself slowly around the trunk by treading on the interweaving branches.

"Sasuke?" he asked when he finally stepped onto the same bough as the other. He crawled bit by bit on his hands and knees towards Sasuke– because Sasuke always liked picking the thin branches – and sat next to him, both their legs hanging down.

A fresh breeze weaved through the leaves and they sat there, surrounded by the singing of cicadas and a symphony of rustling movement.

"How long have we known each other for?" Sasuke asked suddenly. The sounds faded away.

Naruto thought. He counted. He didn't know how to count the months and days and he lost count at the tenth day.

"A long time ago," he said stoutly instead.

"It does feel long."

Sasuke leaned forward and turned his neck, watching him seriously from a lower height.

"You're not moving far, are you?"

"As long as I can still play with Sasuke, then it isn't far, right?" Naruto grinned at his friend.

"But will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Still play with me?"

Naruto's guffawing laughter rang, more pleasant than nature's music. "Even if Iruka says we're moving to the North Pole with Santa, I will still play with Sasuke rather than Santa!"

Sasuke smiled and straightened, seemingly satisfied with the answer. He turned to lift his face to the sky and Naruto did too.

"Are we best friends?"

"Definitely!"

Dusk fell unnoticeably quickly, then night, the orange of a waning sun bleeding into navy then black.

Fireworks began flaring into the sky. Naruto 'oohed' and 'aahed' and Sasuke appreciated them silently, both their eyes lighting up liquidly with each explosion of colour. A bentou box of sweet cakes sat between them –it's appearance they did not question— and Naruto pointed with a red bean rice cake in one hand.

"Sasuke, Sasuke! That one looks like you! Look, it's spread out like a duck butt!"

"…Idiot."

"Sasuke, do that thing with the leaves! Pleaseeeeee?"

Naruto jumped to his feet and balancing like an acrobat after stuffing the rest of his rice cake into his mouth, he walked along the branch, foot in front of foot until he could reach some leaves. He grabbed a long, thin one and returned to Sasuke with it. He shoved the leaf in front of his friend and pouted his lips.

With a sigh and twitching at the edge of his mouth, Sasuke took it from the blonde. He pressed it to his lips and instantly, the wonderful, weedy music that Naruto adored filled the hills, rolling lucidly across the meadows and fields. Like a flute playing the cobra to his command, fireflies exploded in curtains from the fields and Naruto screamed in delight, Sasuke pausing for a split second as his lips parted in rapture.

Naruto was somehow on the ground, running in the fields and raising his arms to reach for the glowing insects as they took flight from the swaying grass, liquid fire falling from the sky.

Sasuke returned his lips to the leaf and continued to play, hoping that this would never fade.

* * *

><p>Naruto woke up in his bed with a strangely heavy feeling in his body. It was like a dull ache that he couldn't place, as though his heart remembered something but his mind could not for the life of it figure out what it was. His eyelashes fluttered sleepily and he resigned to ignoring it, sleep being a much more attractive option.<p>

It was while he was shifting to find a better position in his twisted sheets that he processed the thick, sticky feeling in his pyjama pants and boxers.

He slowly pulled himself upright. He lifted his sheets suspiciously to inspect the damage, and groaned. It was a big mess alright. Even worse, the clock only read 5:54am.

There was no way Naruto was going back to sleep with his boxers full of cum.

Stumbling out of bed awkwardly, he walked bandy-legged and shivering past the glowing fish tank on the drawers and into the bathroom, mumbling grumpily to himself as he flicked the light switch and the bulb buzzed on. Naruto Uzumaki was not a morning person by any means, and especially not _this_ early on a Winter's day.

Clothes were stripped away and thrown into the woven basket next to the basin before Naruto absently stepped into the glass shower stall. He turned both taps on full blast, shivering in the seconds before the heated water reached the system. Water buzzed around him and he sincerely regretted that he couldn't recall the dream at all.

It must have been a darn great dream.

* * *

><p>"You're too slow, Shikamaru!"<p>

Naruto laughed at his lazy friend and continued running through the school halls, Kiba right beside him and Shikamaru tagging more distantly behind. The two ahead skidded like playful cats around the corner and up the steps. At the top of the first flight they ran into a boy with extremely bushy eyebrows and carrying a tray of lunch in his hands.

"Naruto, Kiba? What are you running so youthfully through the halls for?"

"Less talk, more run," Naruto exclaimed happily, and he grabbed Lee and dragged him along on their escapade. Kiba howled in laughter when he looked down the middle of the staircase, catching a glimpse of Shikamaru tiredly pulling himself up the steps.

"Move, move!" the dog loving boy shouted and they lunged for the next flight and continued running up, making the lazy boy follow them.

The four of them burst onto the rooftop together, having taken pity on Shikamaru and waited for him at the fourth landing.

"What a rush!" Kiba crowed, falling back onto the concrete on his ass and elbows.

Lee sat with his lunch on the ground near him and Shikamaru flopped down at a place on the ledge next to the chicken wire. Naruto laughed heartily, daringly taking up a spot on the ledge at the side without any barrier.

"I'm not saving you if you slip, fox-boy," Kiba said mockingly.

"Who needs saving?" Naruto shot back boastfully.

Kiba gave him a blank look.

"No one."

"That's what I thought," Naruto said with satisfaction.

Kiba stood up suddenly and began walking towards the door. Naruto raised his arm.

"Kiba? Where are you going?"

"You don't need me here, then."

Naruto's heart clenched abruptly and his fingers coiled in on themselves in his fist, suddenly feeling unsure.

"I…"

Shikamaru stood up too. "Troublesome," he muttered, and he walked over to Kiba who grinned wolfishly at him.

"Shikamaru…?"

Lee appeared to have finished his lunch and the tray had mysteriously disappeared. He had been so quick. He, too, got up.

"Naruto, we will see you when you need us!"

"Wait, guys –!"

Naruto got up. He got up too quickly. He saw them turning away, saw their backs to him as he began to fall backwards with an unnaturally slow motion.

"No! Wait up!"

They didn't, and he thought he could somehow hear their voices echoing from the halls as his hands reached out and found nothing, gaze staring glassily up at an endless sky beyond the two large water tanks.

How had they gotten there so quickly? How did he know that that was where they had even gone…

…when he was here falling, about to go over the ledge and plummet to his death.

Help me.

How could they ignore him? Tears filled his eyes and he completely went over with an indrawn breath. The droplets went past him as he fell and hung suspended like crystals in the air. The first window passed him. A flash of blue. His breath shuddered.

They were there, walking…

They were in the Halls.

He whimpered in his throat as he looked up at the skylight. He was on the floor and someone was propping him up against their chest, his breathing coming in shallow, ragged puffs that were barely there. All around him he could hear whispering.

"_A nightmare."_

"_In the Halls? No way!"_

"_Yeah, it's true."_

"Naruto. Can you recognise me?"

Naruto's eyes swivelled left to Jiraiya. For a few moments he stared vacantly as though unseeing of the extremely worried expression on the Master leaning over him. He nodded eventually and his voice trembled with the question he had to ask.

"What happened?"

"You broke the dream apart."

"_**I –"**_

"I'm taking him to the Empty room."

Naruto craned his neck up to see the speaker, the person who was holding him against their chest and stopping him from falling back. Somehow his entire body felt immensely heavy and incapacitated. Moving himself was out of the question.

"Sasuke…"

He would have protested as Jiraiya's face was replaced. Sasuke leaned over him before lifting him up in his arms like he weighed nothing and Naruto felt flashes of shame. But then he saw Shikamaru, Kiba and Lee standing worriedly in the crowd and he buried his face in Sasuke's shirt instead, his fingers unconsciously moving to clutch Sasuke's collar tightly like a lifeline. There was an abnormal lack of insult from his partner.

At that moment, his only feeling was of the arms holding him and the finely textured material beneath his hands. His only air was of the fresh, fougère fragrance of Sasuke's clothes and body, encasing him safely as he was carried away.

When they got to the Empty room Sasuke loosened Naruto's grip gently and put him down in a chair on a far side of the pentagonal room, away from anyone else there. It was set out like a high school detention session with chairs and desks forming hundreds of rows. Only a few dozen people were there, most of them being those who would have taken some kind of effective, dreamless medicine before going to sleep.

"_Dobe_."

Naruto looked up at him without expressing any particular feeling towards the insult. Sasuke actually seemed worried. The skin between his eyebrows was creased and his mouth was slightly open to reveal the little grinding movements of his teeth. Leaning down, he hit Naruto's cheeks lightly with his palms and Naruto surprisingly felt a bit clearer in the head with the contact.

"Focus," the raven commanded, eyes locked with his. "You almost woke up with sleep paralysis." He drew away and Naruto moved back further in his seat.

"What's wrong with me?"

He heard the whispers from the Halls in his mind.

"Why can't I dream like a normal person?"

He reached out to clutch Sasuke's sleeve suddenly and the Uchiha let his arm stay slack under the grip as Naruto gave him the most hesitant, unsure expression he had ever seen. "Can I only dream when you're there?"

Sasuke looked down at his eyes and Naruto saw reluctance and indecision flickering in them. And…was that…no.

"Yes."

Naruto's anger, his defence against the other emotions that tried to overrun him, reared. Beneath it the pain ran like a dangerous, unseen current, hidden by the river surface above.

"What do you know? You're all hiding something from me!"

"I don't know."

"Liar!"

Naruto shoved him away but with his current dismal state he managed little except to make Sasuke take half a step back.

"You _do_," he said, not caring that he sounded like a child by this point. "Why else would you always be in my dreams."

He glared at the other reproachfully and Sasuke took in the brimming tears of frustration in crystalline, blue eyes.

"You always complain about having to put up with me but you still do it," Naruto whispered. "I'm loud, annoying, stupid, so why?"

Sasuke took a hesitant step forward. When it became apparent that Naruto wasn't going to attack him with teeth and claws, he crouched down next to the sitting blonde. Midnight, black hair filled his vision and Naruto unwillingly faced him, body verging on hysterics at any moment.

"I promise, I don't know why you can only dream with me there."

"So that means that _you_ can dream without _me_," Naruto said back bitterly. "Why –"

It was such a familiar action after all these years that Naruto almost didn't register it as anything. But then, they were in the Halls now.

And Sasuke only ever kissed him in his dreams.

His eyes were surely as wide as they could get. Their blue was reflected in Sasuke's dark irises and Naruto could trace the thin, almond shape of Sasuke's eyes, the lashes, and something else as the Uchiha pressed against his lips. Sasuke drew back with a soft exhale after only a few seconds but didn't remove the hand that he'd placed on Naruto's nape. Shock and confusion were the predominant emotions Naruto felt, and his mouth opened and closed wordlessly as he stared.

"I don't know why I have to be there for you to dream," Sasuke said, and there was such a blatant sincerity in his voice that Naruto cut down the already withering impulse to call him out on this joke, "but I know why I _want_ to be there when you do."

He pulled Naruto forward and the blonde did nothing as his body was held.

"I fell in love with you a long time ago."

Sasuke felt Naruto's shuddering breath on his shoulder. The next second he was holding onto thin air and Naruto was no longer in the Halls, only an empty seat left before him. He smiled sadly, eyes downcast, and lowered his arms.

"Idiot. You're supposed to use the door."

* * *

><p>He awoke with a start in the middle of the night, his heart beating so erratically that blood pounded like drums in his ears. The bright, red numbers sitting atop the drawers insisted that it was only nearing three and he rolled over to face the frosty window, wrapping his sheets back over his body after having tossed them off quite violently sometime earlier.<p>

"The hell…" he mumbled sleepily, the soft glow from the lamps outside the window and the fish tank smearing the edges of his vision. The feathery softness of his pillows called enticingly to him. His eyelids were weighing down.

Yet Naruto didn't fall asleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

><p>"Meds?"<p>

"Yes."

"Again, Naruto?" Jiraiya clucked his tongue and looked over him disapprovingly as he scratched down a note.

"Don't give me that look. I can't control what I do in the real world."

"You know where to go."

The Empty room was already very familiar to Naruto by now. A week. For a week he had been having troubles falling asleep in reality, and his real-life self had been taking sleeping tablets and unintentionally stopping him from entering dreams.

For a week, he hadn't seen Sasuke.

He sighed as he sat himself down at the same corner that Sasuke had first set him down in, away from anyone else. Maybe this was God's way of punishing him in every world for the actions of one. He couldn't enjoy his dreams, couldn't sleep restfully, couldn't see his partner.

It was a punishment because he was most definitely missing the bastard.

At first he denied it. That worked for all of about an hour. The first night he had hurriedly strode through the Halls to the Empty room in order to not run into Sasuke. From there he tried to amuse himself, in that white room of nothing. It didn't take long before he realised how hard it was when it was just himself and nothing.

An average sleep was eight hours. Naruto could not help but let his thoughts stray during that time. Concentration never really had been a strong point of his. His thoughts were never of reality though, far as they went. He was free to pick either, but reality somehow seemed, dull, boring; a weak imitation of his dreams.

In the nights following it became clear that Sasuke wasn't making any particular efforts to track Naruto down and Naruto no longer ran through the Halls.

He slowed down.

Sasuke was probably enjoying himself more than before. After being with others he would come to realise that his so called love for Naruto had all been an illusion, created from the ignorance of simply not knowing anyone else to share his dreams with. With experience came realisations. Sometimes bad ones.

Naruto felt realisation of the pathetic kind. He had finally gotten his wish. But how utterly pathetic he was…to feel this sense of loss.

"Jiraiya. What's wrong with me?"

"I don't know, kid."

"No one does."

It was the eighth night of their separation. There was only so much that a person could take of holding serious, internal debate with oneself. Naruto was sure that he was just about to go insane if he continued to be left to his own devices. It was when he had finally built up the courage to reluctantly start walking over to some other people in the Empty room for the sake of his psyche that everything happened.

Screaming gales blew the door to the Empty room wide open and Naruto froze as everyone else exclaimed in surprise. More shouts of panic and awe came from outside and Naruto followed them out the Empty room, running through the abnormally gusty Halls to find himself beneath the skylight where people were pointing. Chamber doors were being blown open on all directions and dreamers were reappearing in the Halls, torn from their dreams. It was terrifyingly eerie. Heads turned upwards.

Naruto looked up and saw a storm.

It was the most malicious, evil storm that he had ever witnessed and the darkness of it pressed down on him, almost physically smothering the Halls. Candles had been lit in their brackets next to chamber doors in order to make up for some of the lost light. Naruto shivered with cold and saw the edges of the glass building with frost that was creeping, vein-like to the walls.

Lightning broke across the almost black sky suddenly and the crashing clap of thunder that followed had several dreamers screaming and crouching to the floor, fearing that the skylight was sure to shatter. A sinister, booming howl followed and shook the structure they stood in, and the Halls fell silent as everyone watched a smoky, glowing red mass move across the skylight with the rolling thunderclouds.

Naruto saw a pair of large, slitted eyes take shape.

"What the –"

"Aaaah. So the king of demons has dropped by to visit."

Naruto spun on his feet to Kakashi, throwing courtesy away. Where was Jiraiya anyway?

"It's a nightmare?" he demanded. The thing above them was huge, and it was terrible to think that a nightmare could swallow a person whole.

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully as the red streak disappeared and many smaller glows of yellow and white flooded the flashing sky instead, smaller nightmares relishing in the powerful aura left by the larger.

"A particularly bad nightmare," Kakashi said informatively, sounding much like a professor in a lecture, with his thumb and finger holding his chin and other arm crossed over his stomach to match. "In fact, it's the worst." He looked at Naruto sideways and tilted his head. "It hasn't been seen for years, you know."

"No, I don't know," Naruto said confusedly, not able to recall a similar event ever happening.

"It's a very rare nightmare," Kakashi continued, "because it doesn't need to hunt often at all. Once it catches a dreamer, it has the ability to feed off their dreams for many, many years to come."

Naruto gave Kakashi a funny, skeptical look

"It keeps the dreamer?"

"Heavens, no, it can't make a person sleep forever. Only death has that right. What would be a good word? Aaaah. Let's say… "

His eyes flickered to Naruto.

"…It places a curse on the dreamer."

A normal nightmare only lasted one night. Demons tended to congregate in packs then dissipated once they'd had their meal, not returning for several nights thereafter. When a dreamer was caught beyond the Halls, they would experience the nightmare then be dropped back into reality. The moment a person was dropped the nightmare disappeared and they awoke, and the demon responsible would have nothing to do with that dreamer anymore, unless they had the highly unlikely coincidence of meeting the same dreamer twice.

The dreamer was free to return to the Halls for all nights thereafter. They could comfortably continue the never-ending process of reality, Hall, dreams. Every dreamer, except, apparently—

"Me," Naruto said softly in realisation, staring at Kakashi. "I can't dream properly because I was cursed?"

Kakashi hummed affirmatively before sighing. "It's going to be a long night. No one will leave the Halls until it has found a prey."

Naruto glanced at him grimly with his mind racing. Kakashi looked resigned, as though he had done something he had set out to do and could interfere no more.

Then the reason why Kakashi was here telling him this despite no one else ever doing so before, why he wasn't with Sasuke instead and why the raven wasn't to be seen anywhere in the Halls suddenly struck Naruto.

Sasuke was outside.

Kakashi looked away when Naruto ran for the doors.

Naruto skilfully dodged the dreamers that were just coming in through the doors, visibly windswept and shaken by the storm. A single person yelled out and tried to grab him in an attempt to stop him from leaving but he skirted the flung out arm and ran into the corridors.

Jiraiya's voice floated to him even though his Master was nowhere to be seen.

"_Are you sure about this, Naruto?"_

"No."

Naruto's footsteps pounded echoingly in his ears, all alone.

"But I'm not sure about anything anymore."

His first step outside was literally mind blowing. He had to hold an arm up against the shock. The wind hit him with enough force to keep him standing should he chance to tilt forwards and he could already feel his thoughts begin to scatter, a testament to the strength of the demon king. Wind swirled everywhere and a red tinted gale momentarily flashed across the walkway towards him, coiling up around his legs before dispersing.

His eyes widened and a clear thought sprang forth from all the jumble. He had to follow it!

There were no horses in sight and Naruto knew that they would all be out searching for dreamers, or maybe even fighting to get back to the Halls without success. He worried for his own mare for a split second before she was wiped clean from his mind, leaving only his own name and Sasuke's. When he reached the stone archway and leaned over to look down into the swirling vortex of clouds, he immediately felt horror grip him. Glowing yellow and white flew through the rapidly spiralling masses and lightning illuminated the shadows where reaching creatures hid. He swallowed, remembering that Sasuke was somewhere in there, possibly having the worst nightmare of his life.

Naruto took a deep breath. His last thought before he leapt in was to wonder how much it would hurt if one of those lightning bolts hit him…

…

…

Falling was such a compressing feeling.

It was like a nightmare in itself, buffeting him this way and that and without an end in sight, uncontrollable. If he raised his arms, he felt like he might just be able to escape, away from here and to his goal.

So what was this end supposed to be?

And then Naruto realised he was falling without a thought in mind.

He couldn't see anything, only a mess of colours that flashed by him without meaning. It didn't stop until he called out Sasuke's name to the screaming air and like pushing the button of an elevator, he was suddenly standing upright. His eyes raked the cloudy landscape to gather his bearings.

Several small demons approached him when he took his first step forward. At the moment they realised that he was the prey of their king however, they retreated quicker than sight. Nothing but a swirl in the shadows was left and Naruto finally came to understand why he had never chanced upon the nightmares everyone warned him about outside the Halls.

A red streak darted past him out of the corner of his vision, so fast it could have been missed. He tensed and ran after it.

_Sasuke_.

"_Poor little boy, without a mother or father to dream with him."_

Naruto stopped and jerked back abruptly as though stung. His eyes filled with something distant and a deep, rumbling voice sounded in his mind.

"_No one to carry you to the Halls. Poor child. I will help you dream."_

More streaks of red were beginning to collect somewhere ahead. Naruto shook his head to clear the strange visions flooding him and ran towards them.

"Demon, give him back to me!"

"_I just want one repayment, little boy. Can you understand me? Do we have an agreement? Nevermind, I think we do. Yes. I will come to you again, but for now…"_

"Give Sasuke back!"

"…_Have a dream."_

"Sasuke!"

Naruto stopped in front of a red, smoky mass that was growing steadily larger. The smoke twisted with movement and then the eyes that Naruto had seen before rolled over from the other side, setting their sights on him as long ears and a snout set with pointed teeth took shape.

"_Boy." _

The growl from the demon was as loud as thunder and Naruto saw multiple tails of red begin to form behind it.

"_You cheated me," _it accused.

Naruto stayed silent and his eyes scanned the vicinity until the demon pulled itself up into the air, hovering and revealing Sasuke's hunched over form smothered in its red aura.

"Sasuke!" he screamed.

He ran forward and was instantly knocked back to the clouded ground by a tail. With relief though, he noted that Sasuke had lifted his head and was looking straight at him. An expression of shock and fear surfaced and the raven's voice was muffled by the smoke as he shouted at him.

"Naruto you idiot! What the hell are you doing here? Run!"

"_Neither of you are leaving." _The demon hissed and it drew closer to Naruto, pulling Sasuke with it as it did. It was so close that with a single snap of its jaws, Naruto would be swallowed.

"_You have caused me trouble."_

"Let Sasuke go! I'm the one you're after!"

The demon chuckled deeply and Naruto saw Sasuke wince from the reverberations.

"_And let you cheat me again? I am not a fool, boy."_

In a sudden, macabre movement, the face of the demon rolled over backwards again to look at Sasuke.

"_I only need one prey,"_ it said mockingly, hot, red breath hitting Sasuke in the face._ "Now then…which one of you should I destroy?"_

Sasuke's eyes flashed and he swiped with a hand at the demon's snout. "Leave Naruto alone," he snarled.

It sneered at him in reply. _"Is this love that I'm feeling? How pathetic. When will __**he**__ ever realise how weak his creations are."_

Sasuke's eyes suddenly widened. "NARUTO!"

The blonde ignored Sasuke's shout and proceeded to try and beat the living daylights…darkness, whatever, out of the demon fox. He landed punches on the fox's head which had no effect. In annoyance, the demon flicked a tail again, sending the blonde sailing backwards through the air.

"_I think…I'll choose you."_

And with a burst of speed Sasuke was freed and left on the ground, as the mass of raging red raced towards Naruto instead. Its jaws spread wide to catch the falling boy. Naruto managed to twist awkwardly so that he landed on its chin instead of falling into its mouth. He scrabbled desperately to avoid slipping before the fox jerked its head, throwing him off and to the side.

Pain. His hard impact with the ground this time brought blood to his lips and rattled his body.

_I'm never going to wake up_, he thought hazily as the fox advanced. His eyelids lowered and lips trembled as it reared up above his prone form, prepared to wipe him from all worlds. He hoped Sasuke would be safe.

"NARUTO!"

His eyes snapped open. He had been so resigned to his fate that he had not considered Sasuke's interference. Sasuke tackled him to the side out of the way and hugged him so tightly that his breath came in wheezes.

"Wake up, wake up," the Uchiha was repeating in a mantra. His eyes scanned the ground desperately for something and Naruto could only look at him in a strange kind of detached amusement. A part of his mind told him that this was _not_ the right feeling given the circumstances.

He mind was weakening, he realised.

"Sasuke…"

"Wake up Naruto, you can't die here!"

"I love you too, Sasuke."

With a howl of fear Sasuke pulled Naruto even closer, still swinging his gaze across the landscape. Naruto could now feel the blood, _his _blood, sticky between their bodies. Their bodies...what a fool he was, to only appreciate them now. Sasuke at that moment found what he was looking for and his breath caught. He lunged with Naruto in his arms towards the tiny break of sky-blue in the darkness. They tumbled into it, just as the demon fox lashed furiously at the air above them.

They were falling and the clouds were disappearing past them into bright blue. The nightmare began to lift. Sasuke breathed into Naruto's ear, voice burning itself into his mind even as this world began to fade.

"You better wake up, Naruto. I can't go on dreaming with just me."

* * *

><p>Noon.<p>

Naruto had never slept straight until noon before. He always woke up before then.

No one was there to see him, twisted in his sheets with the telltale signs of a struggle with his demons. The only movements in the entire room came from the lone goldfish in its tank.

It was as though the still room released a sigh of relief, as his eyes finally opened and he sat up with a yawn from his sheets. The curtains billowed and a satisfied _plop_ came from the tank. After working out the knots in his back Naruto smiled. He turned his head so as to see the brilliant blue outside his window.

"Asshole. It's always about you."

END

* * *

><p>Epilogue will come. Probably. Don't get it? He remembers.<p>

Crack omake

Being on more than friendly terms in all three worlds didn't stop Sasuke and Naruto from having their squabbles. Such were the fetishes of a couple. A small, ridiculous thing such as dignity in a Hall of a million dreamers had never even been of consequence to them.

Even if their squabbles weren't of…the normal meaning anymore.

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks on the stroll to their first dream of the night, staring straight ahead with his mouth slightly open. He had just had an epiphany. An exciting and horrible epiphany, it was.

"You…"

He turned and stared hard at Sasuke, who had stopped walking when Naruto did and looked quite unsure about what was going through his blonde's mind.

"Me?"

"You!"

Naruto dug his feet into the ground and stabbed a finger at his lover's chest accusingly. "You were actually _enjoying_ those wet dreams all these years! You _pervert_!"

The crowd around them whispered scandalously. Oooh.

Was that it? Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Is that supposed to make me feel embarrassed? Because I admit it."

Naruto looked affronted.

"I can't believe it! All that time you spent being a frigid prick, and you were actually getting off on it?"

"I think I just agreed that yes, I do get off to your body." Sasuke paused. "And in it too."

Cue murmurs of interest from the sidelines.

"Pe –pervert!"

"Kakashi is my Master for a reason, dobe."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's the same reason as why Jiraiya is your Master."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean!"

Sasuke strode over in two large steps and wrapped an arm around Naruto's waist, just above his hipbone. He pulled the smaller boy close and murmured hotly above his mouth.

"That I don't think you're above being an exhibitionist, _Naruto_."

Oooh, the crowd thought. It was on! Pet names were out of the arena!

"Wha –no way, Sasuke! _No. Freaking. Wa—Aaaaaaah!"_

It was such a pity that photography didn't exist in the Halls.

"Noooooo! Sasuke! Argh!"

A month later, the first rule in the history of the Halls was created and hammered into the entrance doors:

'No wet dreams outside of chambers.'

**FIN**

_HaHa. Happy Easter. Leave me a chocolate coated review please!_


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